Meanwhile, 140 miles away, in Kendallville, IN, a petition is being circulated to stop a proposed $7.9 million library building. Once the opposing signatures are submitted, the library will have 30 days to gather competing signatures. Whoever gets the most signatures wins. The new building is being opposed for the usual reasons. [Story courtesy LISNews.]

On Tuesday night, Frisinger Park was jam-packed with cars and trucks and a girls’ softball team and their parents and boosters. Passing through the park, which I normally do on my way home as a shortcut, was inadvisable. Wednesday night was less of a zoo, although there were a handful of boys and their dads engaged in softball practice. Last night, the park was deserted, except for a few starlings and sparrows and robins poking in the grass, along with the odd squirrel. The park is full of dandelions in full bloom. When you walk or drive past and there’s a wind, a blizzard of seed-bearing dandelion pods explodes all around you. Fortunately, the dandelion is probably one of the few flora I’m not allergic to.

It was virtually impossible for me to sleep last night. The heat is upon us, and it definitely rises to the top in our house. It was only 65 degrees outside last night but it felt like a Dutch oven indoors, even with two high-powered fans at full blast in the bedroom, except in the basement, which actually did feel 65 degrees.

The TCF Bank clock at the corner of Division and Liberty said 74 degrees this afternoon around 1.00. It felt at least 10 degrees hotter, and with the humidity, who knows what the “real” temperature was. I wouldn’t mind the heat so much without the humidity. I’m a heavy sweater and what days like this do to me is best left undescribed.

Fortunately, there have been winds and breezes all day, along with a freakish burst of torrential rainfall at 3.15 this afternoon that lasted about 10 minutes and vanished with almost as little warning as it started, followed by another more substantial torrent at around 6.15 that left the area around Liberty and William virtually deserted.

I’m told that the rest of the season and summer will be much like this, humid and unbearable for a couple of days and then a break, followed by another torrrid day or two and then another break (except for a time in July and/or August when it will be hellish for several days in a row).

In between thoroughly (and devastatingly, I might add) trashing the new Wolfgang Petersen “Troy” movie and bemoaning the scariness of having just graduated, two women in Ambrosia were discussing this afternoon why it was that a mutual friend always suffered from the affliction of people developing crushes on him. “It’s because he’s hot but non-threatening,” theorized one. “I’ve always found that the ‘non-threatening’ angle attracts a lot of bisexual women,” chimed in a guy friend who was sitting nearby.

It just doesn’t get any more Fascist FunDumbMentalist than this:

‘The Roman Catholic bishop of Colorado Springs has issued a pastoral letter saying that Catholic Americans should not receive Communion if they vote for politicians who defy church teaching by supporting abortion rights, same-sex marriage, euthanasia or stem-cell research. Several bishops in the United States have warned that they will deny Communion to Catholic politicians who fail to stand with the church, but Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs is believed to be the first to announce that he would extend the ban to Catholic voters. “Anyone who professes the Catholic faith with his lips while at the same time publicly supporting legislation or candidates that defy God’s law makes a mockery of that faith and belies his identity as a Catholic,” Sheridan wrote. In a telephone interview, Sheridan said: “I’m not making a political statement. I’m making a statement about church teaching.”’

Of course, there’s no word from these pathetic types about rightwing fascist catholic politicians who support the death penalty in defiance of the Vatican. No siree.

Nope, it’s just a jibe at John Kerry and other ‘pro-choicers’ like him, and their supporters, as long as they are on the left side of the aisle.

How stomach-churning.

Three girls coming into the ‘Media Center’ for Career Day presentations on cosmetology today:

‘See, this say media center, but a media center where you go to use computers and stuff. And this ain’t no media center. This a LIBRARY. It full of books.’

Yeah. What she said.

I guess I was grossly mistaken when we moved here; I thought we would be paying much less for gas per gallon than we did in San Francisco.

A week ago, I was waiting for the interminable light at Packard and Stadium to change and the price at one station on the corner was raised from $1.88 to $1.95 while I sat waiting for the green.

Today, going home for lunch, the station on the southeast corner of that intersection advertises its new gas price: $2.08 a gallon. 20 cent a gallon increase in just over a week.

Good golly.

Still, I suppose it could be worse. According to Gas Price Watch.com, the station where I usually filled up in San Francisco is $2.25. Ouch.

Since my good bike is still in San Francisco, my feet may be getting a lot more use in the near future.

Ann Arbor isn’t the liberal bastion I thought it was; while ‘guest teaching’ today at a central AA middle school during a Career Day assembly, I passed a science classroom which was empty except for the teacher.

She had the radio blaring out with full throated and ‘kill all the liberals in the colleges and universities’ passion, none other than the Hillbilly Heroin addict himself, Mr. Rush Limbaugh.

I guess the fascists have at least one loyal listener in ASquared.